The commerce secretary said there is a “monstrous discussion” among administration officials about making deals similar to what the president announced with Intel this week.

Trump administration officials are looking into whether the federal government could take a stake in private defense companies like Lockheed Martin, days after President Donald Trump announced such a deal with chipmaker Intel, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday.

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Lutnick about the U.S. government potentially becoming the largest shareholder of Intel, a private tech company, and pressed him on where the Trump administration would draw the line.

“Why shouldn’t the U.S. government say, you know what? We use Palantir services, we would like a piece of Palantir. We use Boeing services, we would like a piece of Boeing,” Sorkin asked, citing the private data mining and aerospace companies.

Lutnick said there was, in fact, a “monstrous discussion” going on among Trump administration officials about taking partial ownership of defense giants.

“I mean, Lockheed Martin makes 97 percent of their revenue from the U.S. government. They are basically an arm of the U.S. government,” Lutnick said, adding that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, among others, were considering the economics of such an arrangement.

“These guys are on it and they’re thinking about it,” he added.

“As we did in his first term, we are continuing our strong working relationship with President Trump and his Administration to strengthen our national defense,” a Lockheed Martin spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said in a statement.

Lutnick’s comments came a day after White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said he thought there would be “transactions” similar to the Intel deal in other industries.

“This is a very, very special circumstance because of the massive amount of Chips Act spending that was coming in,” Hassett told “Squawk Box” on Monday. “But the president has made it clear all the way back to the campaign, he thinks that in the end, it would be great if the U.S. could start to build up a sovereign wealth fund.”

Trump announced Friday that “the United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL,” which he touted as a “great Deal” for the company and for America. However, the company warned of potential consequences — including a drop in international sales and litigation — and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized the deal as socialist.

On Tuesday, Lutnick waved off concerns about the U.S. government partially taking over private companies.

“I tell you what: There’s a lot of talking that needs to be had about how do we finance our munitions, acquisitions? … Now you have the right people in the jobs and Donald Trump at the head thinking about what is the right way to do it,” Lutnick said. “I’ll tell you the way it has been done has been a giveaway.”